Reading dry spell

nuclearalchemist

Hi H&A,

So recently, I have not been reading as much as I should, or think I should. My basic problem with reading novels / series is that I have read a ton, and have sort of burned myself out on several of the series that I like. Normally, I am into Fantasy/SciFi (duh), but I was wondering if anybody had any good recommendations in these areas for books that I haven't read. Some of these include the series:

Song of Ice and Fire
Wheel of Time
Anything David Eddings
Anything Weiss & Hickman
Anything Orson Scott Card
Anything Heinlein
Anything Frank Herbert

You get the picture. Recommend me some new books so that I have something to do before going to bed!

GrimmyTOA

Here are some of my favourites -- I like the same fantasy series' that you seem to, for what that's worth.

• Have you tried Raymond Feist's Midkemia stuff? The early novels (Riftwar series, Empire series) are good -- I can't really speak to the later ones, though.
• How about some Neal Stephenson? Snow Crash, Quicksilver and its sequels.
• Guy Gavriel Kay is a great writer of Fantasy. Check out Sailing to Sarantium, Tigana, A Song for Arbonne.
• Or there's Steven Erikson. His Malazan series is good (although it has so many characters that I feel like I should be taking notes as I go).
• You could always try Jack Whyte's Dream of Eagles series. It's a retelling of the Arthurian legend as it could (sorta maybe) have happened. With Romans!

Hmmm... that's a good start, I think.

Doc

not wheel of time

Cognisseur

Wait, you like sci-fi but you didn't list Neil Stephenson on your list?

Snowcrash, Age of Diamonds, and Zodiac are the three you must read. He's written other stuff, but some of his contemporary stuff (like Quicksilver) is just okay. But Snowcrash is like, an orgasm written down.

Or if you want to venture outside of scifi for a bit, I have a very fun book recommendation.
Gun-Seller by... Hugh Laurie. (House). He wrote it before he went into acting, it's a satire of a typical spy novel. In addition to having excellent cheeky British humor, the storyline actually holds up on its own despite being satire, so it's a light, very enjoyable, very funny, read.

But if you're staying to scifi, Snowcrash asap.

necroSYS

The Black Company series by Glen Cook

necroSYS

Doc wrote: »

not wheel of time

Usagi

Zelazny (Chronicles of Amber)
Asimov (Foundation Series, Robot Series, Nemesis, The Gods Themselves, everything)
McKinley (Blue Sword, Hero and the Crown)

mysticjuicer

Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
Illium (and then Olympos), by Dan Simmons.
Hyperion (and the sequels, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion), also by Dan Simmons.
Practically anything by Terry Pratchett.

nuclearalchemist

Yay, I can try the Neil Stephenson, for some reason that one has escaped me. I did read the wheel of time back in the day, before it got to book 10 and haven't read any of the later books, and I don't intend to. I have read pretty much all of Asimov and Arthur C Clarke though; forgot to put those down.

noir_blood

I'll go ahead and get this one out of the way-

Altered Carbon.

Now, it's not 'smart' sci fi, but if you're in the mood for a pulpy story full of violence and sex, it's good.

The Road I dug, though it's seriously depressing. Along those lines, if you never have, Stephen King is good. I'm not a fan of the Dark Tower series, but Stand, It, and Salem's Lot are must read IMO.

Good Omens is awesome. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is also good, and a quick read.

mysticjuicer

Oh, also, the Saga of Recluse series by L. E. Modesitt Jr. is (at first) pretty good too. Specifically titles like the Towers of the Sunset, the Magic Engineer, the Order War. As with any long running series, they fall into formula pretty fast, but my copies have had the covers read clean off their poor massmarket frames.

The 'His Dark Materials' series by Philip Pullman is also worth reading, if you haven't already.

vonPoonBurGer

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. On the plus side, this is a fantastic first book in what looks like it could be a great series. On the down side, it's the only book out yet so if you do like it you'll be waiting a while for the next one. I really dug it, but I almost wish I'd found out about it five years from now so I could devour the whole series at once.

noir_blood

Oh man, I forgot about that one. I got it completely by accident(I had joined one of those book of the month clubs and forgot to check that I didn't want that one sent to me) and loved it. Someone once described it as a grown up Harry Potter, and it truly is.

Cognisseur

Shut up everyone, he said I won, he's going to read Neal Stephenson, stop trying to corrupt his mind with lesser literature!

Rook

Personally I'll throw in most books by Gene Wolf, but particularly Latro in the Mists (I think that's an anthology) and the Book of the New Sun, although they're both quite difficult reads.

Easier reading is Robin Hobb and the Assassin Trilogy/Liveship Traders stuff. William Gibson is pretty good, I personally prefer his later stuff than the earlier ones, so I'll recommend Pattern Recognition.

I'll also throw out a few classics

Count of Monte Cristo
1984
Catch-22

and a leftfield suggestion of Wuthering Heights.

metaghost

Maybe you'd be excited to explore more non-SF/Fantasy?

Delve into the classics (whatever they might be).
Investigate different periods/styles (not specifically genre) of literature.
Getting a book of short stories, whether by a single author or many, can be really refreshing.
Or a book of essays! Orwell's gigantic book of essays is a wealth of fine reading.

Some specific suggestions:

Milorad Pavic - The Dictionary of the Khazars
Nicholson Baker - The Fermata
Thomas Nashe - The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Stories
Donald Barthelme - 40 Stories
Abe Kobo - The Kangaroo Notebook
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
Julio Cortazar - Blow Up (and Other Stories)

stratslinger

If you're looking for a fun SciFi read, that's easy and fast paced, check out Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" Novels. I can recommend the Asteroid Wars books first-hand, and one of these days I'm going to get back and read the rest. Fun books, paced well, and easy reads - which might be helpful getting you back into the swing of reading...

Also, if you're into short fiction, check out The Space Opera Rennaissance. There's a few examples of older, really pulpy sci-fi, but it pretty quickly gets into more contemporary stuff. There are lots of authors represented, and they may be helpful in figuring out what authors you'd like to follow-up on. I know it added several to my list.

Cognisseur

I'm pretty disappointed only noir_blood brought up Neil Gaimen. He's turning into one of my favorite authors. Urban fantasy is just such an interesting genre, a mix of reality and supernatural in just the right way. And the obscure almost poetic dialogue is really quite excellent.

I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Terry Pratchett and wants something a little darker and a little more grounded in reality.

Dark_Side

I'll second metaghost, try branching out into other areas of literature. I was a huge sci-fi reader and have since moved on to a more classics bent. If you need a bit of a rejuvenation a collection of short stories is always a nice change of pace, and sci-fi seems to fit the genre extremely well, Arthur C. Clark would be one I would recommend. Maybe Heinlein too, but his stuff tends to be a bit pulpy for my taste, although Starship Troopers is pretty good.

Grid System

For science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is well-written, fast-paced, and loads of fun. She's written something like fifteen novels, a few novellas and a short story, and they've been collected in seven omnibus editions. The books tend to vary a fair bit in their focus and subgenre(s), so you won't get bored.

For fantasy, Bujold has a couple of novels set in Chalion, her setting based heavily on 15th century Spain. She also has a new series called The Sharing Knife, but I don't know much about it. Also good are China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels.

Seattle Thread

necroSYS wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

not wheel of time

Gabriel_Pitt

I'd recommend just about anything by Iain M Banks and Stephen Baxter. Rarely have I encountered authors whose sci-fi novels were so consistently enjoyable.

clsCorwin

Usagi wrote: »

Zelazny (Chronicles of Amber)

Theres honestly not enough lime for that.

Also yea, anything by Neil Gaiman.

Seconded on Modesitt's Recluse series. Yes it does get formulaic, but Modesitt's book jump around in time, but what makes them interesting is you see the history of his world at various points in time, and you see a lot more shades of gray as far as morality goes.

Definitely recommending The Name of the Wind, as well as The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is very entertaining, and the final book will be out at the end of the year.

Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is epic. Its one of Martin's influences for ASoIaF, which is why I read it.

SniperGuy

Neverwhere is a pretty good Neil Gaiman book. As is Stardust, American Gods, basically anything.

Also, The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchet is pretty good. First one of the discworld series, which is like The Hitchiker's Guide in a fantasy setting instead of sci-fi.

And my constant recommendation, The Dark Tower by Stephen King. 7 books.

GrimmyTOA

Cognisseur wrote: »

I'm pretty disappointed only noir_blood brought up Neil Gaimen. He's turning into one of my favorite authors. Urban fantasy is just such an interesting genre, a mix of reality and supernatural in just the right way. And the obscure almost poetic dialogue is really quite excellent.

I'm disappointed in myself for forgetting him. Especially as I'm going to hear him speak.... tonight.

Duh.

Anyway, definitely second Gaiman.

Jacobkosh

Grid System wrote: »

]For science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is well-written, fast-paced, and loads of fun.

Seriously. I have a feeling the Vorkosigan books would be right up the alley of all the people here reading Pratchett and Dresden Files and so on.

Qingu

Anathem is my favorite Neal Stephenson book and one of my favorite books ever.

Also, Amber is awesome. You'll love it.

Artereis

Anything published by Jim Butcher. Codex Alera is great, but the Dresden Files books are even better. Steven Brust is another one of my favorite authors. The Vlad Taltos novels are really addicting, and he has a bunch of other material, as well.

rockmonkey

I'll third Gaiman (American Gods is my per. fav. of his)
Jim Butcher, Dresden for urban fantasy and codex alera for your high fantasy. Beware, although Butcher's urban fantasy is great I'd highly recommend against most of the other urban fantasy titles you'd find out there. They are mostly paranormal romance.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy for those who like Codex Alera.

Ash of Yew

Sorry if it was mentioned but I've been reading The Children of Hurin. It's by tolkien and was recently released after Christopher Tolkien put it together from his notes or something. It reads as a full novel though and isn't jumbled/pieced together really and so far I am really enjoying it.

zeeny

Patrick Rothfuss
Scott Lynch
Joe Abercrombie(completed)
Brian Sanderson(completed)
Richard Morgan
Scott R. Bakker(completed)
Steven Erikson
JV Jones

...are modern fantasy authors whose series you'll most likely enjoy.

Peter Hamilton
Frederik Pohl
Ian Banks

...are their science fiction equivalents.

Edit: Also Gene Wolfe.

Sorcy

Another vote for Gaiman and Stephenson, although sometimes I have the feeling Stephenson doesn't know how to end his books. Some of them feel like "Oh shit, I've already written 600 Pages, now to wrap this whole thing up - fast."

I'd advice to read some Vernor Vinge. The books of his I've read so far and can recommend from the bottom of my heart:

A Fire upon the deep, A deepness in the sky and Rainbows End (this one is a near future scifi). Great great books.

E.Coyote

The Chronicles of the Shadow War series by Chris Claremont were pretty good, it continues the story of the movie willow.

Shark_MegaByte

Try some more stand-alone fantasy. Like Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, or Warbreaker.
Or Michael A. Stackpole's Talion: Revenant.

clsCorwin

C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy

and for a superb standalone, Nobody's Son by Sean Stewart

Noneoftheabove

Seems like most modern Sci-Fi adds in a terrible dose of Fantasy into what should be more Science. I half expect to find an explanation for FTL travel to involve pixie dust these days.

MuddBudd

mysticjuicer wrote: »

Hyperion (and the sequels, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion), also by Dan Simmons.

I cannot fucking Lime this hard enough.

The Hyperion Cantos is the best Sci-Fi series I have ever read. Rise of Endymion is one of the VERY few books that has actually made me cry.

In fact, read more Dan Simmons in general.

I also highly recommend Charles De Lint. He writes urban fantasy (as in, how the fantasy world interacting with the real world, in unexpected ways). My favorite of his is The Ivory and the Horn, a collection of short stories. Also Moonheart.

Hypatia

GrimmyTOA wrote: »

[*]How about some Neal Stephenson? Snow Crash
[*]Guy Gavriel Kay is a great writer of Fantasy.
[*]Or there's Steven Erikson. His Malazan series is good (although it has so many characters that I feel like I should be taking notes as I go).

Seconding these. For Guy Gavriel Kay though I'd go with The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road) over the others like Tigana.

Retox

I'll second (more like 5th I guess) Snow Crash by Stephensen, and Hyperion by Simmons, though I enjoyed Illium and Olympos more. Also by Stephensen is the Cryptonomicon, a book that will make you absolutely detest the author for the first 600 pages, and love him for the last 600 pages.

I recently read the First Law series, by Joe Abercrombie. It's only 3 books and it is (mostly) suprisingly excellent.

vonPoonBurGer

Hypatia wrote: »

For Guy Gavriel Kay though I'd go with The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road) over the others like Tigana.

I started with those three, but eventually moved on to his other books because I was looking to get away from trilogies and series. His later stuff is kind of a cross between fantasy and historical fiction that I really like. They're not exactly what the OP asked for, but I'd recommend them anyway if the OP ends up liking The Fionavar Tapestry.

jeepinryan

I recently picked up The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R Donaldson. I had read them years ago as a kid and enjoyed it, but I can honestly say it's better this time around. It's an interesting setting for a fantasy novel, with a leper as the main character. Check it out if it sounds interesting